Community
July 21
2022
3
A Message from the WOEC Manager
By Billi Kohler
WOEC General Manager
I would like to take this opportunity to invite all
members of the West Oregon Electric Cooperative to at-
tend our Annual Meeting on Saturday, August 20, starting at
11:00 am at the Vernonia Schools Commons.
At that meeting members will be electing Directors
for Districts 2 and 5. In District 2, Director Paul Seamons
is running unopposed. In District 5, Director and current
Board Chair Erika Paleck is running for re-election against
nominee Ray Taber. Ballots will go out in the mail at the
end of July. Members will have the option to vote online, by
mail, or in person at the Annual Meeting.
As you may recall, the West Oregon Electric Co-
operative Board of Directors approved a two-step plan to
increase rates in 2022, with a partial increase in January and
the remainder in July.
There will be a $3.50 increase to the base charge
and a half cent increase to the kilowatt-hour charge for your
July use. The new rate will be reflected on your August bill.
I often am asked why our rates are so high. Several
key factors go into setting our rates both from a historical
perspective and looking ahead.
WOEC was formed more than 75 years ago to
serve a small group of people who did not have access
to power. There was not enough return on the investment
needed to motivate investor-owned utilities to run the lines
out to all of the sparsely scattered accounts in our territory.
The cost factors were – and remain – significant
because the areas we serve cover parts of five heavily for-
ested counties. Our service areas are so spread apart that the
long distances we travel make service work, outages, and
maintenance extremely costly and time consuming.
Another question I am asked is, “Why not sell or
merge with another utility since rates are forecasted to rise?”
This is a fair question, and one I would like to address.
In 2018, our Board directed management to ex-
plore the possibility of WOEC selling the system to an-
other utility. Any such arrangement would have to satisfy
the Board’s fundamental principles: WOEC members’ rates
would be substantially reduced by the sale to another utility;
and WOEC members would be treated the same as the ac-
quiring utility’s existing customers both in terms of service
and rates.
Under Oregon law and WOEC’s bylaws, any sale
of the system would have to be approved by two-thirds of
WOEC’s members.
One utility expressed interest in buying our system.
WOEC and the potential purchaser began a long and thor-
ough analysis of the economics, logistics, and legal require-
ments for a sale proposal. Unfortunately, after four years
of thorough examination, the realities of WOEC’s service
territory – along with current cost drivers – made it clear the
sale would not result in meaningful rate reductions, if any.
Given that information, the Board decided to terminate the
discussions.
We are a not-for-profit cooperative with a strong
internal focus on controlling costs and operating efficiently.
We understand the economic challenges our members face.
We will continue to work hard to contain costs while pro-
viding safe and reliable service to our communities.
Portions of this message were previously published in the
July 2022 issue of Ruralite magazine.
Wauna Credit Union Attains Juntos Avanzamos Designation
Wauna Credit Union (WCU) has
been granted the Juntos Avanzamos desig-
nation this month, a designation for credit
unions who have committed to serving His-
panic consumers.
The designation is led by Inclusiv;
the Network of Latino Credit Unions and
Professionals (NLCIP); Coopera, Iowa-
based consultants to the credit union indus-
try on the Hispanic market; Cornerstone
Credit Union League; and a growing num-
ber of state leagues and associations across
the country.
“If the Credit Union is failing to
serve any individual for any reason, we
need to correct that immediately,” said
WCU President and CEO Robert Blumberg.
“As long as we are consistently living our
mission and discovering new ways to help
people, then we are on the right path,” he
said.
WCU joins 121 Juntos Avanza-
mos designated credit unions in 27 different
states throughout the county. The program
is specifically designed to better support the
Hispanic community, offering information
on credit unions who have demonstrated
specialized abilities including, bi-lingual
staffing, translation services, non-citizen
lending, and more.
WCU is known for providing fi-
nancial education, investment services,
lending products, and more for the Hispanic
community, and is involved with a number
of local Hispanic-support organizations, in-
cluding Adelante Mujeres and Consejo His-
pano.
“WCU has been serving the His-
panic community for years and one day
it just made sense to reach out to Inclusiv
about securing this designation,” said Mi-
chael Murdoch, Marketing Manager at
WCU. “We’ve looked up to many pioneers
in these initiatives amongst credit unions in
the Portland area – it’s time for us to bet-
ter feature these invaluable services for our
Hispanic communities in and around our
footprint,” he said.
You can learn more about Juntos
Avanzamos and Inclusiv by visiting junto-
savanzamos.org.
Wauna Credit Union is a not-for-profit mem-
ber-owned financial cooperative. Founded
in 1967, WCU delivers all annual prof-
its back to its members via strong savings
and loan rates, investment in technology,
and highly-rated personal service. Anyone
who resides, is employed, attends school, or
worships in Clatsop, Columbia & Western
Washington Counties in Oregon, or Pacific
County in Washington is eligible for mem-
bership.
Publisher and Managing Editor
Scott Laird
503-367-0098
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
Contributors
Chip Bubl
Tobie Finzel
Superintendent Jim Helmen
Billi Kohler
Karen Miller
Shannon Romtvedt
Franny White
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Photography
Kari Hough
Scott Laird
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